Peter Selgin
Autor von By Cunning and Craft: Sound Advice and Practical Wisdom for Fiction Writers
Über den Autor
Peter Selgin is the author of Drowning Lessons, winner of the 2007 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. He has published a novel, an essay collection, a memoir, three books on the writer's craft, and several children's books. His play, A God in the House, was a Eugene O'Neill National mehr anzeigen Playwrights Conference finalist. He is a visual artist as well as a writer, and his illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, Forbes, and elsewhere. He is Associate Professor of English (Creative Writing), Georgia College State University. weniger anzeigen
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Wissenswertes
- Geburtstag
- 1957-02-15
- Geschlecht
- male
- Nationalität
- USA
- Geburtsort
- Bethesda, Maryland, USA
- Ausbildung
- Bethel High School
Pratt Institute
Western Connecticut State University (B.A. English)
New School University (MFA) - Berufe
- Assistant Professor of English at Georgia College
Teaches at Antioch University's Low-Residency MFA Creative Writing Program
Viebranz Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at St. Lawrence University - Beziehungen
- George Selgin (brother)
Mitglieder
Rezensionen
Auszeichnungen
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Nahestehende Autoren
Statistikseite
- Werke
- 15
- Auch von
- 2
- Mitglieder
- 211
- Beliebtheit
- #105,256
- Bewertung
- 3.8
- Rezensionen
- 4
- ISBNs
- 24
With a failed novelist as narrator - one Stewart Detweiler - there is plenty here about writers and the writing life, and all the things they're compelled to do to make a living. But Stewart has a twin, Gregory, who is a stodgy professor suddenly turned best-selling author/self-help guru. Once close, now they are estranged. So there are also large helpings here about twins, duality, mirror images, doubles, duplicates and "Duplicity." Hence the title. And, of course, there's that dead body on page one.
But what's it aBOUT, this duplicitous tome? Well, if you believe the narrator, It might be just much ado about nothing. Stewart himself says -
"... to be great a novel should have no subject, or rather it should have nothing as its subject ... To write about nothing is much harder than it sounds. One way to do it, the only way, actually, is to write about everything, since - being equal opposites - everything and nothing are two sides of the same coin ..."
I was reminded of SEINFELD, the TV show purportedly "about nothing." However, unlike poor Stewart's novels "of pure atmosphere," SEINFELD went on to enjoy multiple seasons of immense popularity with millions of avid viewers. Stewart on the other hand, continued to write, rewrite and revise his "novel about a blocked novelist's struggle to write a novel about a blocked novelist trying to write a novel [etc.]."
But despite tepid reviews, rejections and lack of commercial success, Stewart Detweiler persisted, now into his fifties, working various low-paying scut-work jobs to pay the bills, until he finally landed a position as Senior Instructor at the Metropolitan Writing Institute, holding court in a seedy basement classroom in NYC. There he went through the motions of teaching and continued to work on his own growing 'opus.' He also enjoyed a brief affair with a beautiful young student, Ashley Bridges, which soon fizzled out due to the unfortunate side effects of meds he was taking for his enlarged prostate. And the tale of the prostate is but one of the many digressions found herein. Truth is, I enjoy digressions. People do that. They digress, and often down strange, piddling little paths. But Stewart was serious as death about his profession, and tried to explain this to Ashley -
"Writing's not a career, it's a way of life. You don't choose it; it chooses you. You have no choice, not if you're a real writer. If you're a real writer, you'll starve before you'll quit ... you'll scribble away in your lonesome garret as your health declines and the rejections pile up like snow on Mt. Fuji. Still you won't quit, no matter how badly you want to, not till you're dead."
Selgin is obviously accomplished and well-read in many of the arts - music, painting and more. This is most apparent as Stewart descends gradually into paranoia and maybe even madness, reading his dead father's notebooks and despairing that a book is "a hopelessly flimsy contraption of words." He yearns -
"To write a book unpredictable not just in terms of plot but at the paragraph and sentence levels. Novel as concerto/symphony of moods, rhythms, and textures, a movie soundtrack minus the movie; a gallery wherein works are displayed willy-nilly, without order or agenda."
That kind of unpredictability is nearly achieved in DUPLICITY, a dense potpourri of art, music, comedy and tragedy. And maybe - just maybe - about twins? Well, you've got to read the book. In the meantime, I really want to read Peter Selgin's two memoirs. And maybe his collection of essays. And maybe his other fiction too. And maybe ... Ah hell, I'd really like to read ALL of his stuff. What a writer! I loved this book. My very highest recommendation.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (mehr)